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Bad Moon Rising Cornerstone Connections real.solid.stories CORNERSTONECONNECTIONS MAYMAY28282016 Scripture Story: 2 Chronicles 28:1-5; 2 Kings 16. Commentary: Prophets and Kings (or Royalty in Ruins), chapter 27. bad moon rising cornerstone connections 37 Photo by Alden Ho keytext “Ahaz“After wasshe hadtwenty given years him old a whendrink, flashlight heshe became said, ‘I’ll king, draw and water he reigned for your in “This was indeed a time of great peril for the chosen nation. Only a few short years, Jerusalemcamels too, sixteen until theyyears. have Unlike fin- and the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel were to be scattered among the nations Davidished hisdrinking’” father, he did not do what of heathendom. And in the kingdom of Judah also the outlook was dark. The forces was right in the eyes of the Lord.” for good were rapidly diminishing, the forces for evil multiplying. The prophet Micah, (Genesis 24:19, NIV). viewing the situation, was constrained to exclaim: ‘The good man is perished out of (2 Chronicles 28:1, NIV) the earth: and there is none upright among men.’ ‘The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge’ Micah 7:2, 4. ‘Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant,’ declared Isaiah, ‘we should have been as Sodom, and . Gomorrah’ Isaiah 1:9” (Prophets and Kings, p. 324). www.cornerstoneconnections.net Judah. Edomites then moved into Elath and have lived there to this what day. do you think? “Ahaz sent messengers to say to The following are some of history’s worst leaders. Try to match Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, ‘I am each of them with the number of people killed by them, or their your servant and vassal. Come up and policies. save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are 1. Pol Pot ___a. Cultural revolution led to 14 attacking me.’ And Ahaz took the silver to 20 million civilian deaths. INTO and gold found in the temple of the 2. Mao Tse-tung ___b. Killed more than 1 million Lord and in the treasuries of the royal Cambodian citizens. THE palace and sent it as a gift to the king of 3. Idi Amin Dada ___c. Directly responsible Assyria. The king of Assyria complied Oumee for the deaths of STORY by attacking Damascus and capturing 6 million Jews. it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death. 4. Joseph Stalin ___d. Murdered “In the 300,000 of his seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz “Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to rival’s support- son of Jotham king of Judah meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He ers in Uganda. began to reign. Ahaz was twenty saw an altar in Damascus and sent to 5. Adolf Hitler ___e. Killed approx- years old when he became king, Uriah the priest a sketch of the altar, imately 20 and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen with detailed plans for its construction. million peo- years. Unlike David his father, he did So Uriah the priest built an altar in ple, sending not do what was right in the eyes accordance with all the plans that King connections millions to of the Lord his God. He walked in Ahaz had sent from Damascus and the Gulag. the ways of the kings of Israel and finished it before King Ahaz returned. even sacrificed his son in the fire, When the king came back from Damas- engaging in the detestable practices cus and saw the altar, he approached it of the nations the Lord had driven and presented offerings on it.” out before the Israelites. He offered cornerstone did you sacrifices and burned incense at (2 Kings 16:1-12, NIV) 38 know? the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree. id you know that some of God’s people offered their “Then Rezin king of Aram and children as human sacrifices Pekah son of Remaliah king to the Ammonite god Molech? of Israel marched up to fight The practice was done in a place against Jerusalem and called Topheth or altar, in the besieged Ahaz, but they Valley of Ben Hinnom. The could not overpower prophet Micah hints why: him. At that time, Rezin “Will the Lord be pleased with king of Aram recov- thousands of rams, with ten ered Elath for thousand rivers of olive oil? Aram by driv- Shall I offer my firstborn for my ing out the transgression, the people fruit of my body for of the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:7, NIV). They thought this practice would appease God. OUT punch lines “But the people refused to listen to Samuel. ‘No!’ they said. ‘We want a king over OF THE us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out STORY before us and fight our battles’”(1 Samuel 8:19, 20, NIV). “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony Have you ever read this passage of Scripture in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd” (Exo- before? What is new to you? dus 23:2, NIV). “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 26:1, NIV). “Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it Place an X at each point in the story where Ahaz should have talked is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve to God. him only”’” (Matthew 4:10, NIV). Circle the names of all the “minor” characters who play a part in Ahaz’s “But you are to seek the place the Lord your life. What specific contribution does each make to Ahaz’s life? God will choose from among all your tribes cornerstone to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go” (Deuteronomy 12:5, NIV). What spiritual lessons will you take away from this passage? connections eyes other Where do you see God in this narrative? “People fashion their God 39 after their own understand- ing. They make their God first and worship Him afterwards.” —Oscar Wilde, 19th-century Irish poet. Do you see God’s hand anywhere in Ahaz’s life or the circum- stances in which he found himself? Explain. “A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th-century U.S. poet, lecturer, and essayist. makingitreal Sabbath Why was King Josiah faithful to God even as a leisure time doing? What specific pleasure do id you successfully match the names of young king, and Ahaz was not? Was Ahaz born you derive from the person or activity occupying D history’s worst leaders with the crimes bad and Josiah born good? your carefree moments? they committed against their people in the What Do You Think? section? Bad leaders Try this: Add up the time you spend come and go, but some leaders stand out due Texting __________________ minutes/day to their barbarity. E-mailing ________________ minutes/day Find a godly, older individual and ask him/her Surfing __________________ minutes/day to tell you of an experience in which they made In the Bible, bad political leaders are defined Facebook _________________ minutes/day a bad decision because of their age. What differently than they are today. Read 2 Kings Total ____________________ minutes/day lesson(s) did they learn? 16:2, 3 to see one such example. Which is worse, a leader who leads his people into sin, Then, dedicate half of this time to getting to or one who murders scores of his people? know God better through prayer, Bible study, Explain. serving others, or sharing your faith. Friday Tuesday et aside a quiet moment this evening. his week’s Flashlight could have been Turn off your cell phone, computer, tab- Who do you turn to for godly counsel, and why? S T taken straight out of some sci-fi movie. let—everything. Get your space really quiet. According to God’s servant, Ellen G. White, Then, get a piece of paper and something to dark satanic forces seemed to be winning the write with. Finish the following statements: My Sunday battle for Israel and Judah. Think right now relationship with God would be much tighter if fter reading the Into the Story section and about the world in which we are living. If you I would let go of ______________________ connections A completing the Out of the Story questions, did not know God, how would you find hope consider this question: Was there anyone amid the chaos in our world? What is the role _________________________________ to whom Ahaz could have turned for godly of Christians in a world such as this? It’s not easy to do it, but I plan to __________ counsel? Do some research to find out which prophets were in the land of Judah during his kingship. (Hint: One of them is considered the cornerstone The day I plan to start this is ____________ greatest Old Testament prophet.) _______.
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